Monday, May 17, 2010

40 Days of Mourning

By R.B. Moreno

Night falls on a farmhouse outside Bishkek

Today Kyrgyzstan is marking 40 days since the week of April 7, when more than 80 protesters died trying to oust the government of Kurmanek Bakiyev, who has since fled to Belarus. Pictures from a rally held hours ago outside Bishkek's presidential palace, where many of the victims died in gunfire, was replayed tonight on state television. Rosa Otunbayeva and other leaders of the interim government sat in the front row, listening to tributes and exhortations that moved a crowd dressed in black and patriotic crimson to tears. I could sense, by the sighing and clucking of my host mother and despite my limited Kyrgyz, that the most chilling words came from an April 7 survivor who mounted the podium last, his head wrapped in a bandage and his speech slurred. My host father, meanwhile, remained unusually silent -- feeling too much emotion, I imagine, to share with an American.

WHAT'S NEW

The Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington chapter has named RBM its 2019 "Journalism Educator of the Year." He and other honorees will deliver remarks at the Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards Party on Monday, July 1, at Optimism Brewing Company in Seattle.